Do you remember the sound of the rain ?
by Hazaazel
Summary: Shigeru hasn't seen the sun in three days, can't remember why they got so far into the breach in the first place – it's not a flower that smells so sweet, it's nothing that grows, here in the caves with their walls of stone. But there is an echo, so ancient and so wild even a Nature deity like them is at loss when it comes to answering the call. (Nature Gods AU, written for SASO)


Hello everyone ! This is my fill for Bonus Round 1: memories of the 2016 SASO ! Team Grandstand, yay. I'm cross posting from AO3, and still in the process of doing so, expect more OS in the next weeks !  
Reviews are the life support of writers, don't forget that even a few words are enough to make us happy and motivate us to post more. I hope you enjoy !

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Shigeru hasn't seen the sun in three days, can't remember why they got so far into the breach in the first place – it's not a flower that smells so sweet, it's nothing that grows, here in the caves with their walls of stone. But there is an echo, so ancient and so wild even a Nature deity like them is at loss when it comes to answering the call. It stirs something, though, deep within them, the feel of petals that have long stopped to bloom, the colours of leaves painters have forgotten. No more than a memory but enough to enthral, and Shigeru is lost to the world when they feel it again.

Again and again, it never stops, but Shigeru can't remember where the sound comes from as soon as they get up to chase its source – Tooru insists it's not them, Eita hasn't heard anything at all, and they don't want to talk to Koushi about it. It feels secret, like a buried treasure even under Koushi's all-seeing eyes, and Shigeru stops talking about it with the hope that it'll go away, with the hope that one day it'll get closer. There are no roots deep enough to reach what makes the sound, no sprout that sway to this ever stranger breath, Shigeru doesn't remember if they never knew or they simply forgot – old, old voices that echo in the earth.

The earth has all but swallowed them now, and Shigeru can feel their ornament of flowers wilt and whither, soon they'll have to go back. They didn't warn Koganegawa before delving in, ongoing competition of roots against stone, but this isn't them either – too subtle, too wild. Who is it then, who is it that they forgot ? They smell like the forest, they feel like the wilderness but Shigeru doesn't – _can't_ remember, an old playmate of their younger days that left the earth even before the growth of the ancient trees. Sap, strong and heady and oh so familiar.

Familiar like the feel of fur through the branches, little living things crawling everywhere and brushing their legs as they go by, the wind blowing through their hair and the crown of the trees, the growl of the earth as it slowly ripples, baring root to rot and new soil for the plants to thrive on. Shigeru fell asleep, lulled by the dip and swerve of the world as it went on – this is anything but quiet, how can an echo as faint as a dream be more powerful than the howl of the storm ? Shigeru wakes up to the tingling sense of coming back home.

Home is something Tobio doesn't know of but they're the one to point Shigeru to the hollow in the mountains – almost afraid, almost happy to find someone as limitless as them but unable to slither down the narrow path and disturb the stillness of the underground. "Bring them back", they whisper, "so we can play with them again." But Shigeru doesn't know who they will run into – walk towards – slip by as they're too lost in their own spinning memories.

Memories are for things you remember, and Shigeru doesn't _remember_ – "So we can play with them again," what does it mean ? Nature is obsession, trying and trying and reaching even in the places where it shouldn't be. Mushroom and moss on the walls of the cave, foreign to the touch but Shigeru has a taste nonetheless, and recoils when they aren't greeted back. Everything is wild here, barely sentient – or is it that Shigeru can't speak their tongue yet ? It feels like they're getting closer – electricity in the air like lighting lives in the stone. Maybe that's where it should be contained, maybe it hid away, scared of the men and their countless torches. Even the ancient stepped back, tamed.

There is nothing tame in what Shigeru sees. The cave is vast, undetected under the heavy carapace of the mountain, and it would feel like a shrine if it weren't a prison, or is it the opposite ? Everywhere, the sound of a breath, everywhere, the same melody, a rough music of endless pacing and never running free. It's incredibly lonely, and Shigeru feels the weeping lichen soothe the palms of their feet. This is how they get noticed – prostrate on the ground, reeling under the sensory feedback – they forgot, they forgot, they shouldn't have, they'd promised not to – they never intended to keep this promise, either, they lied to a child when they put them to sleep. The growl makes the earth shake.

They shake – Shigeru, for the first time in centuries, is truly afraid. More than of the fire, more than of the steel, Shigeru is afraid of being lost, of losing, of breaking the circle of harmony that Nature always strives to be. The wolves do run unbound after all, the trees do break the ground with their relentless growth, and this is wild, wilder, another sort of power that makes their head spin. "So we can play together again," Tobio said, and Shigeru knows they're still here even now as the air tingles and burns. The shadows cease to move and the sounds stops as well. Shigeru closes their eyes – feels like crying, tears of joy and sorrow.

"Did you sleep ?," Shigeru wants to know.

"I couldn't. I didn't want to."

Sorrow brings a strange feeling, deep and soft and foreign. They do remember how to approach the wilderness, though – don't move, don't move, wait until it gets closer and never assume victory can be maintained. Shigeru can't help but lean into the touch, eyes still shut tight and breathing uneven. They missed this – the all-encompassing warmth of the living.

"Tobio is waiting for you."

"You weren't ?"

"I forgot."

"I knew you would," the wildnersess answers.

Living alone is not for everyone, and it's not for them. The forests bristle with sounds, the silence of the night is never deep enough, even in the desert, the dried leaves are a symphony. Maybe that's why they still like men, after all. Men never leave anything to the side, slither everywhere and make themselves at home – make a home out of an empty kingdom, after the gods of the living left – were driven away – what were they thinking ? Why did they – how-

"I missed you," and Shigeru's throat is tight.

"How ?"

"I could still hear your voice."

"I've been calling for ages."

"I know. I'm sorry," and it's all they have to offer as an answer.

"Get me out of here."

They don't know how to get out, not with something so immensely vast trailing behind them, but they were wrong to worry – isn't the mouse as wild as the whale ? They're about the same size, when Shigeru finally open their eyes, but while they seem to fit the confines of their body like the moss clings to the stones, what stands in front of them is barely contained, waiting to burst free.

"Take my hand."

Free is something Shigeru never thought they'd be when they first met Tobio, but they don't think freedom is what they made it out to be. Maybe they'll meet, one day, with one of the ageless gods of the land. The cave almost collapses when they step out of it. Shigeru doesn't regret it – it wasn't meant to be. It takes two days to get back, because by the time they've started talking Shigeru was too impatient to consider waiting – they ran, together, and Shigeru laughed loud enough for the wind to hear.

"What will we find, outside ?"

"Do you remember the sound of the rain ?"

Tobio must have heard and greets them with thunder – for a moment Shigeru fears they will dissolve in the streaming waters, this creature they have yet to conquer.

"Kentarou," Shigeru whispers

"I don't remember."

"We'll show you again."


End file.
